


Enough Space for You and Me

by cleflink



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Royalty, I watch too much Star Trek, IN SPACE!, M/M, Ridiculous, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 00:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16800064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleflink/pseuds/cleflink
Summary: When his home is invaded by marauding aliens, Jared's going to have to rely on his wits, his programming skills and his irritatingly bossy bodyguard to save the entire planet. Wonderful.





	Enough Space for You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to sketchydean for both an amazing prompt and being amazingly patient with me. I hope that the story was worth the (extra) wait, hon! Everyone should head over to her [Tumblr](http://sketchydean.tumblr.com/post/180685377576/enough-space-for-you-and-me-written-by-the) to give her kudos on her amazing art.
> 
> Thanks also to our lovely mods for knocking it out of the park yet again - y'all rock!
> 
> And finally, thanks to everyone who reads and especially those who take time to offer kudos and comments. I appreciate you all so very much!

When the invasion came, Jared was in the Centraintre Library, trying to find a non-excised copy of Trajet's treatise on deep space interstitial communication.

Later, he would have cause to be grateful for the fact that he was halfway across the city from the Citadel when it fell, but it would be a considerably distant later. 

Right now, all Jared was grateful for was the fact that he had the library entirely to himself while he ransacked the comm tech section.

Well, Jensen was here too, but as Jared's bodyguard had only slightly more presence and personality than the wall he was leaning against, Jared didn't think he really counted.

According to the chronometer on the wall, it was well past the time that Jared should have packed up and caught a transport tube back to the Citadel; the opening ceremonies for the First Landing Festival were starting at noon and his parents would be expecting him to help them preside over things. It wasn't like they really needed him there, though, and it honestly wouldn't be the first time that he'd been late to something official because he'd got distracted by his research. He still wasn't having any luck finding Trajet's work, but he'd found several promising smaller works that might be useful to his current project.

Jensen cleared his throat pointedly when Jared stood to connect his datapad to the Development of Yingian Communication Drones databank instead of shutting it down, but Jared ignored him. His parents would understand. 

Just as he linked his datapad, a thunderous roar exploded through the air and the floor shuddered violently underfoot. His pad went skittering across the table as Jared stumbled hard, letting out a cry that was more shock than pain as his hip banged against the edge of the table. 

There were a couple of rapid footsteps behind him. "Yo-"

"I'm fine," Jared said, before Jensen could ask. He rubbed at his hip, wincing at the sting. "Was that an earthq-" 

The world shuddered again, accompanied by a sound like a thousand mirrors shattering, sharp enough to make Jared's ears hurt. Jensen grabbed him by the arm to stop him from falling over.

Both the shaking and the sound only lasted a few moments. Just long enough to be terrifying. It took Jared far longer to realize that the ringing whine left in his ears wasn't just an aftereffect. 

"What the hell's going on?" Shaking off Jensen's grip, he staggered over to the window, looked out and beheld a nightmare.

The city was under attack.

The bio-dome had been shattered, a great gaping hole in the latticework rendering the city's automated defenses inoperable and providing an entry point for the dozens upon dozens of violently black fighter ships that were pouring into the city. The sound of their engines was the drone of a million bees, ubiquitous and terrifying. There was smoke rising up over the rooftops. Somewhere far off, people were screaming.

Jared stared in open-mouthed horror, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. 

Oh god, where were his parents?

Jared didn't think. He spun on his heel and bolted for the door.

"Wait!" A hand clamped down on his shoulder, halting his momentum abruptly enough to make him stumble.

"Let go of me!" he snapped, whirling to glare at Jensen. "My parents are-!"

"Not your concern," Jensen interjected, in a flat, no-nonsense voice that Jared had never heard him use before. Considering the fact that Jensen had probably said all of two dozen words to him in the last three years put together, that probably wasn't surprising. "We need to get you somewhere safe."

Jared stared at him incredulously. "If you think I'm going to go _hide_ while my parents are-"

"You're not going to help their Highnesses by getting yourself caught."

"Stop interrupting me!" Jared directed his best forbidding look at Jensen's stubbornly set face. "I'm going to help my parents and this kingdom. If _you_ want to run and hide, go ahead."

He spun sharply on his heel, squared shoulders a warning as he marched determinedly for the door.

Behind him, Jensen uttered a short, sharp curse. There was a rapid clatter of footsteps, then a sharp pain in the side of Jared's neck.

"Sorry," he heard vaguely, and then the world went black.

\---

It was too hot.

Jared winced at the heavy feeling in his limbs, wondering why he felt like he was being baked from the inside out. His head was aching with a low, steady throb, and the light sparking behind his eyelids made the thought of opening his eyes unappealing in the extreme. 

But the heat itching across his skin only seemed to be getting worse, and whatever he was lying on felt like a slab of concrete beneath him, so Jared screwed up his courage and opened his eyes.

Light, blindingly intense, stabbed into him, and Jared hissed in discomfort, eyes slamming shut again. He tried again, blinking rapidly into the glare. It took several long moments for his eyes to adjust to the abnormal brightness.

Instead of the familiar honeycombed lattice of the thermal regulation system, all that met Jared's dazed eyes was a pale expanse of blue that seemed to go on forever. The steady pulse of the twin suns was making his head throb, their light so much brighter and hotter than anything Jared had experienced before. A faint, dry breeze whispered across his cheeks.

He was outside the dome.

Memory surged back in the rush, and Jared jerked upright. His head swirled with the abrupt motion, but he ignored the pain as he looked wildly around him, heart hammering in his throat. All he could see was sand in every direction, the dusty mountains hemming them in on all sides. 

What the fuck was he doing in the wastes?

"Excellent," Jensen's voice said, and Jared jerked again, twisting to see the man leaning against a massive rock tower, idly cleaning his pistol. The ubiquitous red jacket that marked him as one of the city guards stood out boldly amidst the world of browns and tans. "You're not dead. I was starting to wonder."

Jared glared at him, wincing at the ache in his bones. His mouth tasted strangely metallic, and he realized that the pain in his neck was consistent with the muscle burn of a jet injection. "You drugged me?" he demanded, incensed. "How dare you?"

"Because my job is to keep you alive," Jensen said, not bothering to look up from the work of his hands. "And since you seemed set on getting yourself killed instead, I had to take action."

"You had no right!"

"I had every right!" Jensen snapped back. He raised his head and pinned Jared with a forbidding look, fire sparking in his gaze. "Or have you forgotten that I answer to their majesties, and not to you?"

And Jared couldn't really argue that one, but that didn't mean he had to surrender graciously. "I'm pretty sure that bringing me outside the dome wasn't what they would have had in mind. How far away from Kri are we, anyway?"

Jensen gestured with the pistol to a point over Jared's left shoulder. "About 5 miles that way. I hope you're not planning on walking back; it's not safe."

Jared rolled his eyes. "Is that the only thing you can say?" He eyed the direction Jensen had pointed, mentally mapping the area. "So we're on the road to Wulf? In what possible way was that a good idea?"

"Because this was the first gate I found that would take us out of the city."

Jared crossed his arms over his chest and gave Jensen a mulish look. "So you'd rather that we die of exposure in the wastes instead, is that it?" 

Jensen looked profoundly unconcerned. "Calm down, princeling. We're not going to die of exposure."

"Why'd you even drag me all the way out here, anyway? Sure, things were bad-" The memory of those black ships spilling like maggots through the bio dome rose up unbidden, and Jared fought the urge to shudder. "-but there are plenty of safe spaces in the city. Hell, we have all sorts of protocols in place in the event of an alien invasion, and you just ignored all of them and got us stranded in the damn _wastes_ , and-"

"It's the Ghash."

Jared felt the blood drain from his face. "No," he breathed. "No, it can't be. They never come this far into the quadrant."

The expression on Jensen's face suggested that yes, it could.

Jared's heartbeat kicked up. "H-how do you know it's them?"

"I saw them with my own eyes. And I watched what they did to our people who didn't hide fast enough." Jensen spoke quietly, almost calmly; Jared didn't really know how he could keep his voice so even when talking about the most dangerous black marker raiders in the quadrant. "If we'd stayed in Kri, we'd both be dead right now."

"I-" Jared didn't know what to think. "That's…"

Something that could almost have been softness leeched into the edges of Jensen's face. "My job is to keep you safe," he said, and god, was Jared ever getting sick of that word. "Right now, the best way you can help your kingdom is by staying out of the Ghash's reach."

"We can't just stay out here," Jared protested. He swallowed hard. "If… if the Ghash really are here, then we need to do something."

Jensen raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I… I'm not sure."

"Well, the way I see it, we've got three options." Jensen held up one hand, counting off in his fingers. "One, we head back to Kri to try and save the day, and die like men: terrified and begging for the pain to stop. Two," he continued, while Jared was still wincing over option one, "we can head for Wulf and throw ourselves on the mercy of our enemies."

Jared made a face. "What mercy?"

"My thoughts exactly. It also assumes that Wulf hasn't already been invaded by the Ghash, which is a pretty big if. The third option is that we hide in the wastes like hermits until the Ghash inevitably catch up with us." 

"I'm not thinking much of your options." 

Jensen gave a mocking bow. "Which is why I'm now going to open the floor to suggestions. Because I'm all ears."

Jared blinked at him. "Are you serious?" 

Jensen waved a hand at him. "Knock yourself out. You're the genius after all. I'm just the hired muscle." 

Unbelievable. "This has to be the worst rescue-kidnapping in the history of the planet."

Jensen appeared unbothered by this criticism. "Beggars can't be choosers, princeling." 

"Would you stop calling me that?" Jared snapped. He earned a liquid shrug in response. 

"Come up with an idea that won't get us both killed in a very messy fashion and I'll consider it." 

Jared glared at him. Jensen simply stood there with an expectant expression on his face. 

"I think I liked you better when you didn't talk," Jared muttered.

Jensen's mouth twisted, then morphed into a smirk. "Too bad, princeling. You going to start using that brain of yours, or not?"

"Tch, fine," Jared surrendered finally. He looked back in the direction of the city, deceptively peaceful from this distance. "What will the Ghash be doing?" 

"They'll have executed or enslaved the army," Jensen said, and barely hesitated before adding, "Along with the government leaders. Hard to rebel when the people in power are gone." 

"And the citizens?" Jared asked, ignoring the sharp pang in his chest at the thought of his parents. 

Jensen shrugged. "Depends on what their plans for the city are. If they're planning to annex the kingdom, then they might leave them generally unharmed, aside from some object lessons in the penalties for disobedience. But-" 

"But what?" Jared demanded, when Jensen fell silent. 

"But if they're just here for resources, then they'll probably kill the useless and dangerous, enslave everyone else and ship them off-planet for sale on the black market." 

Jared swallowed hard. "Is there any chance of people escaping? Or calling for help?" 

"Maybe some small groups got out the same way we did, but not on any large scale. And, unless the Ghash are a whole lot dumber than their reputation suggests, they'll have shut down all off planet transport and communication as soon as possible." He raised an eyebrow at Jared, as if to say _go on then, it's your turn_. 

Jared hated him so much right now.

"We can't go back to Kri," he admitted, the truth of it burning like bile in the back of his throat. "The two of us can't take back the city alone, not when the entire army couldn't protect it." 

Jensen said nothing, just kept looking at him. Waiting. Jared shifted, feeling uncomfortably on-the-spot. 

"If we can't handle this ourselves, and we can't count on the Wulfians for aid, then we need to send a message to the Galactic Peace Corps." 

"How?" Jensen asked. Just that, and nothing else.

Jared chewed on his lower lip, thinking hard. "There's an old TriNet outpost near the Wulfian border," he said slowly, feeling the idea out. "A few miles south of the Filti Pass. It's not been in use since the new communications network was completed, and a lot of the machinery got left behind because of some legal thing over who had the rights to it. I can probably get it working enough to send a distress beacon to the GPC. The Ghash can't be blocking all off-planet communications, especially the obsolete TriNet network." 

"You want us to walk across the wastes," Jensen said, slow and deliberate. "All the way to the Filtri Pass. With a Ghash invasion force on our heels."

"No, a matter of fact, I don't," Jared snapped back, angry and not bothering to hide it. "It sounds only slightly less likely to get us killed than storming the capitol building by ourselves. But I don't see a whole lot of other options, so it's the best plan I've got."

There was a moment of silence.

"Well," Jensen said easily. "I guess we'd better start walking." 

"That's it?" Jared couldn't help but ask. "You're not going to argue?"

Jensen had the nerve to look amused. "Would you like me to? Because I'm not a big fan of wasting daylight when there's an entire invading army out there looking for the crown prince." 

Jared wasn't sure what was worse: the fact that Jensen had a point or the fact that he was making Jared feel like an idiot. "I just, it's a big risk. You're not even going to ask me if I'm sure I can get the message out around the Ghash's comm jammers?" 

"Of course you can," Jensen said easily. "You're Jared."

What the hell was Jared supposed to do with that?

"Come on," Jensen said, holstering his gun and starting to walk away at an oblique angle to Kri. "I'll lead. You just focus on not getting killed."

\---

They struck out across the wastes, Jensen in the lead and Jared trailing a handful of steps behind. Jensen angled their course away from the main road, leaving nothing for Jared to look at but mile after mile of unchanging sand and dusky rock formations.

The suns beat down strongly, baking the air and leaving Jared feeling overheated in a way he never was beneath Kri's bio-dome. He trudged grimly onwards.

It was a quiet walk. Jensen seemed to have used up his word quota for the next century, and had accordingly reverted to his usual stoic silence. Jared couldn't exactly say that he minded, since he had liked pretty much nothing that had come out of Jensen's mouth today, but that didn't make the silence any easier to stomach. 

Trying not to think about his parents was impossible. And, really, when the only other thing he had to dwell on was how much he hated the wastes, it wasn't exactly putting him in an optimistic mood. 

What had the Ghash done to them? Had they escaped too? Were they worried about him? Were they even able to worry about him?

Head full of fears and the sick feeling of helplessness, Jared paid only the scantest attention to their direction, or the scenery, or the ache in his feet from walking so much. He had no idea how long they'd been walking.

All of which meant that it came as a surprise when Jensen paused as they stepped into the shadow of a squat, awkward-looking outcropping, his head tilted in thought. 

Waving a hand that seemed to suggest 'wait here', Jensen walked towards the outcropping and started circling around it with an assessing look on his face. Jared watched the spectacle, nonplussed. 

Finally, Jensen nodded. "We'll camp here for the night."

"Already?" Jared asked, surprised. Involuntarily, he glanced up to where the second sun was still hanging well above the horizon. "It's not that late though. Shouldn't we keep going?"

Jensen gave him a condescending look. "Only if you want to try finding a place to stop in the dark. The second sun falls much faster than the first: we don't have as much time as you think. Besides," he added. "We're not likely to find a better shelter than this one."

Jared looked dubiously at the tumble of rocks. "Slim pickings in the wastes, huh?"

Jensen arched an eyebrow. "You are aware that the wastes get very cold when the suns go down, aren't you?"

"Of course," Jared said automatically. It wasn't even a lie, mostly.

"Unlike the sand, this kind of rock absorbs and stores the heat of the suns." Jensen patted the heavy face of the outcropping. "It won't be completely comfortable, but it's better than the alternative."

And, honestly, Jared had no real preference one way or another, so he shrugged and let Jensen set up a bare bones camp for them in a shallow alcove formed by the curve of the stone. It didn't take long.

"Now what?" Jared asked, when he was huddled up near the small fire pit that Jensen had dug. He felt uncomfortable in his skin, stretched thin and gangly like he was a teenager all over again.

"I," Jensen said, with particular emphasis. "Am going to go find us something to eat. You are going to sit here and stay out of trouble."

The thought of food made Jared's gut twist. "I- I'm not really hungry." 

Jensen's expression didn't change. "Tough. That's just the trauma talking." 

Apparently bossy Jensen was back. And he was still a jerk. 

Delightful.

Jared glared at him mulishly. 

"You're going to eat even if I have to shove it down your throat," Jensen continued, in an idle tone that was strongly at odds with the dead-serious expression on his face. 

Jared squinted at him. "Seriously, do you have a personality filter that's on the fritz? Because I can't figure out why it's been like talking to two of you today." 

Jensen's face twisted into a look of profound disgust. "People are complex enough without enhancements, princeling. Maybe if you talked to more of them, you'd know that." 

"Oh yeah, because you're one to criticize me for not talking," Jared shot back - not his best retort, but it would do. 

Except Jensen still had that dammed superior look on his face. "Not talking to you and not talking to anyone are not the same thing. I exist for more reasons than to watch you read data pads in the library." 

For some reason, that stung. 

Jensen stood while Jared was still scrabbling for an appropriately scathing response. "I'm going to find something for us to eat. Stay here. I'm not rescuing you if you get lost in the wastes." 

He turned on his heel without waiting for Jared's reply. 

"Bet you would," Jared muttered at Jensen's retreating back. 

Of all the bodyguards in Kri, why did he have to get stuck with a crazy one? 

\---

"I am not eating that." 

"I wasn't lying about shoving it down your throat," Jensen said, almost cheerfully. "Do you really want to test me?" 

Jared eyed the firmly muscled arms filling out Jensen's red jacket, then back at the frilled... thing that the man had roasted over the little fire pit. It was green. And scaly. 

"Is that even edible?" Jared hedged. 

Jensen rolled his eyes. "Would I feed it to you if it wasn't?" 

"I don't know," Jared snarked back. "You don't seem to like me much. I wouldn't put it past you." 

An indecipherable expression flashed across Jensen's face, before resolving into his now familiar superior smirk. "Guess you're just going to have to trust that my dedication to my job is sufficient to keep you alive."

Jared made a face at him.

Jensen was profoundly unmoved. "You might as well get on with it."

Heaving a put-upon sigh, Jared surrendered. He accepted one of the skewers of frilly green monster and took a hesitant bite.

It was, well. Edible, certainly, but not something that Jared would have eaten if he'd had another option. His stomach, which was only just realizing how long it had been since breakfast, didn't seem to care how chewy it was.

They ate in silence, Jensen seeming to enjoy his roasted lizard considerably more than Jared. Jared didn't understand him at all.

When Jensen finished his food, he pulled a slightly blackened stick out of the fire, leaned forward and started sketching a rough map into the sand. It gave Jared a pang to watch him scratch out the dome of Kri. 

"We travelled about nine miles today," Jensen said, and drew an x at a random spot that was at once too far and not far enough away from Kri for Jared's like. Jensen marked out another x on the opposite side of the map, then traced a line between them. "We'll travel approximately parallel to the Gfaer road for as long as we can, but we'll eventually have to strike out further afield."

"Why not take the road itself?" Jared wanted to know. "Surely that would be easier."

"Unless you want to be a sitting duck when the Ghash arrive, we should stay as much out of sight as possible."

Well, Jared supposed that made sense, but… "You don't really think they're coming after us, do you? How would they even know where to look?"

Jensen sat back with a sigh. "I don't think they're after us specifically, but I do think they'll be on their way to Wulf before long. It's how the Ghash operate: once they make landfall on a planet, they systematically conquer each people that live there. If they're not after the Wulfians now, they will be as soon as they consolidate their hold on Kri."

Jared frowned at the reminder. Jensen had been right about how fast night had fallen, but he still didn't like the idea that they were just sitting here while anything could be happening back home. "How long will it take us to reach the outpost?"

"At our current pace? About six days."

"Six!" Jared repeated, aghast.

Jensen's smirk was deadly by firelight. "You're the one who wanted to walk across the wastes. Guess you'd better get used to lizard." He discarded his stick and reached for another skewer full of crispy lizard. "Another?"

\---

Really, Jared should have expected the nightmare.

He woke up screaming, thrashing his way into consciousness with the vision of his parents' bodies lying in blood soaked dust still vivid behind his eyes.

A hand pressed down on his shoulder, grounding him. Jensen. 

"It was a dream," Jensen said, his voice firm with conviction, but still somehow impossibly soft. "It's not real." 

"It might be," Jared choked out, feeling his face crumple at the realization. His skin felt too tight. 

"And it might not. Breathe with me, in and out. That's it. No good borrowing trouble. There'll be more than enough trouble in the morning." 

Jared made a sound that was almost a chuckle. "Is that really supposed to make me feel better? 

The shadows danced as Jensen shrugged. "Worked, didn't it?" 

And Jared paused, realizing that he was right. But he couldn't let go of his nightmare so easily.

"Jensen," he said, hushed, like a secret. "What if they're... d-dead?" 

The hand in his shoulder tightened. "Then I'll grieve with you. And you'll protect your people when they cannot." 

Tears choked Jared's throat again, and he could only nod, overcome. They say there in tear-clogged silence for Jared didn't even know how long, before Jensen calmly withdrew his hand and retreated back to the other side of the fire. 

Jared missed him almost immediately. 

\---

Jared officially hated the wastes.

They'd entered their third day of their forced exile, and Jared was hating every second of it. 

Jensen had chivvied him into action at the crack of dawn, somehow fully awake despite the fact that Jared had woken him up several more times that night as well. Jensen was quietly supportive every time, and Jared wasn't sure how to reconcile that Jensen with the silent shadow who'd been his bodyguard for the last three years, nor the stubborn, sanctimonious bastard who'd been bossing him around ever since the invasion.

If Jensen noticed Jared's curious scrutiny, he ignored it.

They'd already been walking for hours in the merciless heat, and Jared was starting to think that being enslaved by the Ghash didn't sound like such a bad thing in comparison.

"Wait," he gasped, fighting to draw the hot, sticky air into his lungs. "I need a breather."

"Come on, princeling," Jensen called, as easily as if they were on an afternoon stroll. He didn't even sound out of breath. "You can't wimp out on me already. It's a long walk to the outpost."

Jared glared darkly at him. "Why aren't you sweating and wheezing too?" 

"Guess I'm just more awesome than you," Jensen said breezily. 

"That is _not_ a reason."

"Of course it is. Besides," he added after a moment, not quite casually enough to keep Jared from perking up. "Not everyone grew up in the city. Us common folk need to be hardier than you urbanites." 

A frown creased Jared's brow. "You weren't born in a city?"

Jensen condescending eyebrow was really starting to piss him off. "How, exactly, is that a surprise to you, princeling? Do I look like a hive dweller?"

Jared winced at the vulgarity, which had probably been Jensen's intention, judging by the hostility with which he'd spit it out. And he'd never really paid that much attention before - Jensen had always been more like part of the background than an actual person - but now that Jared was looking, he could see what Jensen was talking about. He was too pale, for one, and his eyes were too light to have lived his entire life in the carefully controlled climate of a domed city. But it was the melanin clusters scattered across the bridge of his nose that really gave it away: only people regularly exposed to Tau IV's twin suns ever developed those. 

Jared vaguely wondered how he'd never noticed them before, although he supposed it wasn't that much of a surprise when Jensen had so rarely looked him in the eyes before today.

Apparently taking Jared's silence for surrender, Jensen looked amused. His lips curled, lifting into a smug, nasty smirk, and Jared scowled back at him.

"You could have fooled me," Jared drawled, with as much disdain as he could muster. "Considering you _are_ a hive dweller these days. At least 10 years now, judging by how long you've been working for my parents."

 _That_ wiped the amusement off Jensen's face. "That doesn't make me like you."

"Well, what does it make you then?" Jared demanded. "Besides a hypocrite, obviousl-yeeee!"

Jared yelped at the sudden hard shove against his shoulder blade, stumbling down to one knee. 

"What-" he started hotly, only to be cut off when Jensen's hand clapped down over his mouth. 

"Shut up!" Jensen hissed. His eyes were fixed on something in the distance, his entire body drawn taut with tension. 

Jared craned his neck to see. It was beyond awkward in the crouched position that Jensen had forced him into; he ended up with his cheek pillowed on Jensen's arm, so close that he could feel the shallow rise and fall of Jensen's chest against his arm. 

It wasn't hard to see what had caught Jensen's attention. A cloud of dust was drifting through the air in the approximate direction of the main road, growing steadily closer. As it approached, Jared began to make out the sound of transport vehicles, their heavy carriages trundling through the sand and kicking up all of that dust.

Jared froze, hardly daring to breathe. Together, he and Jensen watched the dust cloud approach, pass them and continue on. Jared shifted to stand, but was unable to for the grip that Jensen had on him and the hyper-alertness still brightening Jensen's eyes.

Finally, Jensen relaxed. He lifted his hand away from Jared's face. "Thanks for not biting me."

"Don't think I wasn't tempted. What was it?" 

"Military convoy. Judging by their trajectory, they're probably heading for the border." 

A tickle of fear crept up Jared's throat. "Are they after us?" 

Jensen hummed thoughtfully. "Unlikely. They're more likely to be trying to get a toe hold on the border cities to prevent any chance of support arriving from Wult." He paused. "Or they're planning to attack them, after all. Wait."

Jared twisted his head to look. "What?"

"They've stopped. They might have set up a camp nearby."

Jared wasn't sure why that was important. "So we should walk further away from the road to stay off their radar."

"So we should go check it out," Jensen corrected. "Come on."

And Jared really wasn't sure this was a good idea, but the idea of not having to walk for a while was more appealing than he knew how to resist.

"Military camp," Jensen said, when they finally reached the right place, ten or so minutes later. "Looks like they are planning to invade Wulf, after all."

Jared squinted at the measly looking crowd of tents and transport vehicles. "With just these guys?"

"This will be the advance guard." Jensen looked out across the assembled tents with a calculating look on his face. 

Jared didn't like it. 

"Stay here," Jensen ordered suddenly. "I'm going to take a closer look." 

"Oh, no you don't. I'm coming too." 

"That wasn't actually a suggestion." 

Jared glared at him. "And you're not actually in charge of my decisions. So hurry up and lead the way already." 

"You follow my instructions," Jensen said finally. "And for God's sake, princeling, try not to get us caught." 

"Darn," Jared deadpanned, as dry as the earth below their feet. "There goes my great idea for breaking up the monotony." 

Something flicked across Jensen's face that might almost have been a smile. "Just shut up and follow my lead."

Jared's entire body thrummed with tension as he followed Jensen's slow, slinking gait towards a sand dune that overlooked the southern part of the Ghash camp. Jensen moved with a fluid, deadly grace, his heavy boots all but silent across the sand. 

Trailing along in his wake, Jared couldn't help but feel like a bumbling pile of uncoordinated limbs in comparison. 

Somehow, they made it safely behind the sand dune without being spotted. Jared all but collapsed the moment he was clear, knees trembling. The look that Jensen threw him was amused, but also somehow fond, nothing cruel in it at all.

"You're okay," he murmured, in the low, comforting voice that Jared had only ever heard in the nightmare-soaked darkness. "If you think you can, you might as well take a look."

He hadn't come all this way to back down now. Especially not if it would prove Jensen right. So Jared gathered up the shreds of his dignity and poked his head carefully over the lip of the dune.

Jared knew about the Ghash, had seen images of them in news holos over the years. But even knowing couldn't have prepared him for the sight of them in the flesh. It had been literal decades since Jared had felt short, but the Ghash easily towered over even him, their multi-jointed limbs moving at odd, unnatural-looking angles. Even at this distance, Jared could see the sunlight glinting off their black carapaces, could hear the rattling hiss of their language through their razor-sharp mandibles.

He thought about one of these aliens being the last thing his mother or father saw and felt sick to his stomach. 

"I know," Jensen said grimly, in response to the repulsed expression on Jared's face.

"We _have_ to stop them," Jared managed, his voice shaky in a way he refused to acknowledge.

Jensen, by contrast, sounded supremely confident when he responded, "We will."

Silence fell between them. Jensen's eyes darted everywhere across the camp, cataloguing who knew what. Jared wasn't sure his nerves could handle that much prolonged exposure to the Ghash, so he looked at Jensen instead. He let his eyes trace the graceful sweep of those unexpectedly distracting melanin clusters across Jensen's cheeks, admired the way intense focus suited Jensen's features so much more than the studied blankness he'd always worn as Jared's bodyguard. 

Jensen's head turned abruptly, and Jared looked immediately away, feeling his cheeks flush with more than just the heat of the day. "You done?" he asked, in a passably casual voice.

"Not exactly."

There was something strangely anticipatory lurking in Jensen's voice, prompting Jared to look back at him. "What does that mean?"

Jensen grinned suddenly. It was a cheeky, boyish expression that made him look shockingly young. "How would you like to steal a land cruiser?"

\---

To say that their vehicle theft went well would have been a gross exaggeration. 

"You are staying here," Jensen ordered, in a tone of voice that said he wasn't going to budge on this one. The last time Jared had heard it, he'd been drugged shortly afterwards, so he knew better than to try his luck.

"I'm still not sure why we're doing this," Jared said, because Jensen would think he didn't care if he didn't find something to complain about.

"Because it's a damn sight faster than walking and we're kind of on a time limit here." 

"And you think that stealing a Ghash land cruiser is a good idea." Despite himself, Jared glanced over the top of the dune at the rows of transport vehicles. "Do you even know how?"

Jensen shrugged. "It's hardly brain surgery. Bypass the locks and rewire the transit console. Easy as pie." He stripped off his jacket, and Jared's thought process was abruptly derailed by the realization that Jensen was fucking jacked, which was all too apparent in the snug shirt he was wearing under it. He could probably have done without that knowledge.

"Since when can you rewire a transit console?" Jared managed after a too-long pause. He very deliberately avoided looking at Jensen's biceps. 

"Since always." Jensen smirked at him. "You've always been too caught up in your own studies to notice that sort of thing." 

"Like you would have even given me the chance." Something flashed in Jensen's eyes at that, and Jared scrambled for something else to talk about. "Is there any particular reason you've finally joined the ranks of us normal people who don't wear jackets in the middle of the wastes?"

Jensen rolled his eyes and unceremoniously shoved his jacket into Jared's hands. "It attracts too much attention. Hold onto it until I get back."

The material was slick and unexpectedly cool under Jared's fingers. "Whatever," he said. "Go forth and don't die already."

Jensen's expression grew serious. "If anything goes wrong, I expect you to get out of here." 

Jared forced himself to roll his eyes. "I'm pretty sure we've already had the conversation about how you don't get to tell me what to do." 

"I'm serious, Jared," Jensen said, completely ignoring the opportunity to taunt Jared about how well that hadn't gone for him last time. "You've got to get the distress message sent. That can't happen if you get your fool self caught." 

"Fine," Jared said shortly. He raised an eyebrow at Jensen. "Are you going or what?"

"Don't miss me too much," Jensen said, and then he was gone, ghosting across the sand like smoke. 

Jared watched with baited breath as Jensen inched ever so slowly into the camp. Honestly, Jared had no idea how Jensen managed to move without attracting the attention of a half dozen Ghash on every third step, but the sheer improbability of it didn't stop Jensen from getting right into the camp without anyone being the wiser.

Releasing a cautious sigh, Jared leaned forwards as Jensen reached the ranks of cruisers. Jensen slithered right up to the door of one of the smaller cruisers, only to pause and cock his head in that way that Jared was getting increasingly used to. 

"What are you doing?" Jared murmured, as Jensen turned away from the cruiser and headed instead for one of the tents. Casting a careful look around himself, Jensen eased open the tent flap and slipped inside.

Nothing happened for a long time. Jared's heart pounded loudly in his ears.

The sudden blare of an alarm made Jared jump, his stomach twisting itself into knots. Ghash warriors converged on the tent that Jensen had snuck into, and Jared stopped breathing.

Jensen appeared, eeling his way out of the tent and across the sand almost before Jared had realized he was there. His pistol was in his hand, and he took out the first Ghash that tried to corner him with a smooth shot through the thinner plating that protected its throat. His pistol fired again, winging one of the other Ghash, and Jensen was running, away from the Ghash and away from Jared, the self-sacrificing idiot.

He was fast and unpredictable, weaving back and forth like a snake through the camp as he sped for the opposite side of the road. 

The sharp retort of a plasma gun whined through the air, and Jared clapped both hands over his mouth to bite back his horrified yell when the bolt caught Jensen in the leg. Jensen buckled, stumbled and somehow staggered on, but slow enough now for them to catch up. 

"Dammit, Jensen!" Jared hissed, keeping his voice down entirely by force of will. "Run, damn you!"

It was too late. 

The Ghash cut off Jensen's escape route, closing in on all sides with their heavier, slower bulk. Jared couldn't hear what Jensen snarled at them when they grabbed him, but the expression of fierce hatred on his face was more than clear enough. Jared thought he was about to watch the man get murdered right in front of him, and was equal parts relieved and terrified when, instead, the Ghash dragged a still-struggling Jensen away to one of the few stone buildings at the camp. It looked, Jared couldn't help but think, like a holding cell. They disappeared inside, only to reemerge several minutes later without Jensen. 

Jared stared at the closed door with a sinking feeling of dread.

What was he supposed to do now?

\---

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Jared muttered to himself, even as he inched his way towards the tent where they'd taken Jensen.

The Ghash had been on high alert earlier, but now, long hours after Jensen had been captured, their attention had returned to their own tasks. Both suns were still in the sky for now and, while Jared had considered waiting until night had fallen to try this, he doubted the darkness would be as helpful to him as it would be to the Ghash. 

Besides, the thought of leaving Jensen there any longer made Jared want to throw up.

Lacking Jensen's predatory grace, Jared had settled for practically crawling across the sand, trying to keep as low and unnoticeable as possible. He'd left Jensen's jacket hidden behind the sand dune, hoping that the lack of bright colours would make him harder to spot. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do even if he got Jensen out of that tent: they'd still be in the middle of a Ghash camp and Jensen had taken a plasma bolt through the leg that would make running away really fucking difficult. Logically, Jared knew that he was probably damning them both - and the entire planet - by attempting this crazy rescue, but he couldn't just leave Jensen here to die or be enslaved or…

The familiar sight of an engineering array caught his eye and Jared paused, both literally and figuratively as sudden possibilities flooded through his head. Now this he could work with. 

Fifteen minutes later, Jared had eased the casing off the console and gone to town. Once he'd finished reprogramming everything in the camp that even remotely fit under the identification of a vehicle and thrown a few bugs into the Ghash's systems to keep them preoccupied, he crept over to the building they'd locked Jensen in. And while lock picking wasn't something he'd practiced much in the past, Jared knew his way around enough machinery to be able to hack his way through the basic code and slip inside.

Jensen was shackled to the wall, his arms stretched over his head and the wound on his leg still bleeding sluggishly. Since Jared had last seen him, he'd also acquired the beginnings of a black eye, a whole array of shallow cuts on his exposed arms and a bruise high on his cheekbone. Jared didn't want to think about what other damage might be hiding under his clothes. 

Jensen took one look at him and groaned. "Why are you such a pain in my ass?" 

"You're welcome," Jared shot back, a little snippily. He crossed the room hurriedly, bee-lining for the computer on the far wall.

"Are you incapable of following basic instructions?" Jensen asked, while Jared frantically hacked his way into the security system. "I ask because I'm genuinely curious."

"Hey," Jared grunted, most of his attention on what he was doing. "You want me to turn around and leave you here, you just say the fucking word. Ah, gotcha!"

"Well," Jensen drawled, the attitude only slightly ruined by the audible sigh of relief that he breathed when the shackles snapped open. Jensen lowered his arms with a heavy wince, rubbing at his wrists. "That seems awfully rude, when you've already gone to all of this trouble."

"You're damn right I did. Come on." Jared stooped to help Jensen up, feeling the faint tremors running through Jensen's limbs. He eyed him. "Are you going to be okay?"

Jensen gave him a condescending look.

"Yep, you're fine. Time to go." 

Between them, they managed to stagger out of the cell with a profound lack of grace that nonetheless didn't net them any unwanted attention. Jared waited until Jensen gave the all-clear before half-dragging the man across the intervening space between the cell and the cruisers. 

The space between Jared's shoulder blades started itching.

"This should not be working," Jensen informed him, the words practically whispered in his ear. His breath was warm, and it tickled Jared's skin.

"Maybe they're not used to people escaping," Jared whispered back. "Especially not when they look like they've just gone three rounds with a security drone."

Jensen made a dismissive noise. "Eh, I could take a security drone. This one?" he asked, jerking his chin at the first cruiser they reached. 

Jared shook his head. He pointed at the large, opulently outfitted command cruiser in the middle of the pack. "That one."

Jensen stared at him. "Feel like telling me why you've suddenly got delusions of grandeur?"

Jared shrugged. "They're already onto us, right? So we may as well take the fastest one. Besides," he added, failing completely at not sounding smug. "I disabled the drive shaft in all of the other ones, so we wouldn't get far." 

Jensen stared at him, then laughed. "Keep this up and I might start liking you after all, princeling." 

"Be still my beating heart," Jared deadpanned, ignoring the feeling of his ears heating.

Somehow, they managed to get into the cruiser and without alerting anyone. Even bleeding all over the floor of the cabin, Jensen had no trouble hacking into the command console and manually separating it from the collective network. Jared could grudgingly admit to being impressed.

Their string of good luck couldn't last forever, and Jared wasn't surprised when they found it impossible to start up the engine without drawing attention. By that point, however, the Ghash were too late to stop them.

Jared felt a vaguely hysterical laugh bubble out of his chest as he gunned the cruiser, tearing out of the camp and down the road at a speed his parents would have been appalled by. Jensen was silent, but Jared could see the edges of a pleased smirk out of the corner of his eye.

"Get off the road here," Jensen instructed, some 20 minutes later. "We don't know if they have any other bases already set up. Keep heading north."

"Only if you do something about that hole in your leg," Jared returned, even as he followed Jensen's instructions. The road disappeared behind them with alarming speed.

"It's only a little hole," Jensen said, but hauled himself obligingly to his feet and stumped off.  
He returned a few minutes later with a medkit and sat back down again.

Jensen opened the medkit and made a face. "Not really designed for species without carapaces. Shouldn't be surprised. Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way." 

Off-roading through the wastes took rather more of Jared's attention than driving on the road had, so he wasn't really watching what Jensen was doing as he fiddled with the various items in the medkit.

It was only when Jensen hissed out a slow, pained breath that Jared glanced over.

He immediately regretted it.

"What are you doing?!" he demanded, in what was absolutely not a screech. 

"Sewing myself back together," Jensen said, far too calmly in Jared's opinion. His hands didn't pause in dragging some kind of synthetic cord through his reddened, bloody skin. "What does it look like?" 

Jared wasn't sure whether to feel disgusted or fascinated, and ultimately settled on an awkward mix of the two. "That's archaic. Why do you even know how to do that?" 

"Because it clearly can come in handy. Now shut up and let me concentrate." 

Jared refocused his attention on the terrain outside, trying not to watch Jensen as he slowly and carefully stitched his leg back together. He wasn't entirely successful. 

Jensen was pale and shaky by the time he was finished, his fingers liberally stained with blood and his shirt dark with sweat. 

"What about the rest of it?" Jared asked, taking one hand off the wheel to gesture at the rest of the mess Jensen had made of himself.

"Superficial," Jensen said, closing the medkit. "Without a dermal regenerator, there's not much I can besides wait for time to heal them."

Jared shook his head. "Seriously, though. Where do you learn how to do something like that? You _sewed yourself back together_."

"Hey, you have your skills and I have mine."

"But you don't want anyone to know about yours. I don't understand you at all," Jared admitted, with a sigh. 

Jensen was silent for a long moment. Then he sighed. 

"I was born to the Ulfjhndir," he admitted, softly, like a secret. 

"You're a nomad?" Jared asked, surprised. "Shit, no wonder you hate the city so much." 

There was a momentary stillness. Then, "S'that all you're going to say?"

Jared huffed. "Thanks for thinking the worst of me, Jensen. It doesn't matter to me. I mean," he added, in a desperate effort to take the stiff edge off Jensen's posture. "I barely like you as it is. You being of the Ulfjhndir isn't going to make that worse."

Jensen made a noncommittal noise, and said nothing more.

"What were you after, anyway?" Jared asked, more than ready to change the topic. "In that tent." 

"Information." Jensen braced his leg against the chair and looked up at Jared. "About the situation in the city. And their majesties."

Jared's fingers tightened on the wheel. "Is… are they…?" He couldn't say it.

"The queen is alive," Jensen said, and Jared's breath escaped in a rush. 

"Oh, thank god," he gasped, not surprised to find his vision blurring with tears. "I was so afraid that…"

"She's a captive," Jensen warned. "Along with most of the government." He paused. "I couldn't find the information on the king before they caught me. I'm sorry."

Jared shook his head, rubbing at his wet eyes. "No, no, it's… fine. Just knowing that mom is… well, that's more than I had before. Thank you, Jensen."

Jensen shifted in his chair. "I put both of us in danger," he said, brusquely. "You shouldn't be thanking me."

"And you shouldn't still be trying to tell me what to do." Jared was somewhat horrified to realize how much fondness he could hear in his own voice. What had happened to hating this guy? "Clearly, my plan worked better than yours anyway, so listening to you seems like a terrible idea."

"Hey, I told you I was just the muscle." Something seemed to occur to Jensen. "Wait, where's my jacket?"

"Uh." Jared's mind flashed back to the bundle of fabric he'd left behind the sand dune. "Right where you left it?"

Jensen's expression tightened. "I left it with you."

"And I was kind of distracted by trying to save your ass! So sue me for not bringing it with me!"

Jensen slumped back in his chair. "Shit." 

"Look I'm sorry. I know it's important to you because it's a sign of the guard and all, but..." 

"It's not that. If the aliens find it, they'll be able to do a DNA scoop." 

"…a what?"

"You know, for a prodigy, there's a lot of stuff you're completely clueless about. The Ghash use DNA scoops to collect genetic materials from their slaves. They can use them to track people across solar systems; it's a big part of what makes them such efficient slavers."

"That sounds… not good. So, you think they'll come after you?"

Jensen shook his head. "You were holding my jacket, which means they'll pick up your genetic markers as well. And while I might not be that much of a priority when they've got a planet to subjugate, you're a different story. As soon as they figure out you're with me, they'll be coming after us." 

"Well," Jared said, after a moment of heavy silence. "I guess we'd better make the most of our head start then, huh? How long do you think it'll take them to reinitialize every one of their land cruisers?" 

\---

The miles blurred together. Jensen made some noise in the beginning about taking over that Jared summarily ignored, and then they both lapsed into silence afterwards. For his part, Jared could admit to himself that it was kind of nice to just focus on the terrain in front of him and forget about all of the problems they were facing. 

Knowing that his mom was alive had helped ease the burden of worry on his shoulders, for all that he was still desperately trying not to think about how much she might be suffering, or if his father was alive or not. It was almost a relief to think about driving, and let the rest go.

Jared wasn't sure exactly how far they'd gone when he realized that out was getting steadily harder to see. The suns were going down, and he wasn't sure how much longer they ought to keep going.

He glanced over at Jensen, opening his mouth to ask him what he wanted to do, but caught himself at the last second.

Jensen was asleep in the passenger seat, body slumped down like he'd misplaced his spine and his head lolling awkwardly onto one shoulder. There was a tightness across his brow that suggested that his injuries were causing more pain than he'd let on.

Jared stared for a second. For all that Jensen still looked powerfully dangerous, even while asleep, this was the most unguarded that Jared had ever known him to be.

Unguarded, Jared was chagrined to realize, was a particularly good look for Jensen. But then again, Jared was coming to the conclusion that most looks were good looks for Jensen. It was starting to get distracting.

"Why didn't I ever notice this before?" Jared muttered to himself, because, really, he ought to have. By all rights, Jensen should have been more attractive when he was silent and obedient, rather than the colossal prick he'd proved himself to be in the last few days.

Ultimately, Jared decided to let Jensen rest. He kept driving as the world darkened, and, after a bit of trial and error, managed to turn on the cruiser's headlights, which made life easier. 

Eventually, though, he had to find somewhat to stop. They clearly weren't going to reach the outpost tonight, and he didn't fancy trying to drive in compete darkness, headlights or no. He pulled to a stop next to a pillar that looked like those self-warming rocks that Jensen liked, wishing that the man was conscious enough to help.

As if on cue, Jensen stirred. "The fuck have we stopped for?" he mumbled.

Jared rolled his eyes so hard he nearly sprained something. "Because I don't fancy driving us off a cliff in the dark. I found one of those rock shelters you like, or we can probably stay in the cruiser overnight." He considered for all of half a second, then added, "Apparently you haven't had any trouble with that option."

Sadly, Jensen was busy peering out the wind screen at the rocks in front of them, and Jared's snide comment passed by completely.

"Not bad," Jensen said, approval clear in his tone. "We'll make a useful person out of you yet."

"Is there a reason why you're incapable of giving a compliment without turning it into an insult? Because I'm starting to wonder."

"It's a rare talent."

\---

Jared decided that traveling through the wastes in a cruiser was much less unpleasant than walking. Three days journey turned into one and a bit, and he nearly cheered when the worn exterior of the TriNet outpost came into view.

They left the cruiser outside, because it didn't make much difference if the Ghash could track them by their DNA, and made their way into the building.

Which was considerably more run-down than Jared had been expecting. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Jensen's eyebrows climbed higher with every successive room they entered. He didn't say anything until they reached the main command centre with its bank of dusty, rusting technology.

Jensen looked at the dilapidated machinery with a heavy dose of skepticism. "Not that I'm doubting you, but can you really get this hunk of junk working?"

"I really fucking hope so," Jared admitted, which actually startled a bark of laughter out of Jensen. "I'm pretty sure it's not as bad as it looks. We don't need most of this stuff to work, which gives me a lot of spare pieces to take advantage of."

"Well, I guess we'd better get started. Can I help?"

Four days ago, Jared would have said no. Hell, even two days ago he'd probably have added a hearty fuck off as well. But that was before he'd seen Jensen finesse his way through an alien control console like he could have done it blindfolded and, more importantly, before he'd realized that Jensen was more than the quiet shadow he'd known for years, and more than the obnoxious drill sergeant he'd been playing at since they left Kri.

Jared could use the help, but more than that, he wanted it.

Jensen was still waiting for an answer, so Jared shelved the moment of realization for another time. "Help me with this casing," he said, casually, like it was no big deal. "Let's see what we've got to work with."

The answer turned out to be more than Jared had expected, but less than he'd hoped. He put Jensen to work scavenging parts from the other obsolete machinery throughout the base, while he set about rewiring pretty much the entire communications network with a pair of rusty pliers and some welding torches that he'd scavenged from the desk.

Once Jensen had dismantled everything likely to be even remotely useful, he parked himself in the ground next to the machine guts Jared had spread out across the floor and made himself useful stripping wires, checking the current and generally doing whatever Jared asked him to. 

The time passed in almost companionable silence, strangely unlike the preternatural quiet that Jensen had always carried with him in the city.

"Hey, Jensen," Jared said, before he could think better of it. "Can I ask you something?"

It was a very bad sign, Jared couldn't help but think, when he could practically hear Jensen raising his eyebrow at him. "I'm going to assume you've noticed the redundancy in that statement."

"God, why are you such a dick?"

"Just talented like that. Go ahead," he added before Jared could give into the urge to throw something at him.

"Why are you so different out here? I mean," he could feel the weight of Jensen's gaze on him, heavy and unnerving, "I'm pretty sure you said more to me in that first half hour outside the dome than you have in the three years you've been my bodyguard. Is it," here he faltered, and took a shaky breath before continuing, "because you're a nomad? Did you think I'd treat you badly?"

The thought was obscurely upsetting.

He heard a sigh and didn't dare look up. "That was part of it," Jensen admitted. "Although not specifically from you; I… don't like telling hive dwellers. It tends to change things."

"What else? You said that was only part of it, so what was the rest?"

Jensen shook his head. "You never give up, do you? S'one of the problems with you science types. Always have to know everything."

"You're avoiding the question," Jared pressed.

"And you should probably take that as a hint," Jensen shot back, with a definite edge of warning in his voice.

Jared, who wasn't actually an idiot, backed down. The quiet fell again, and Jared stewed in it for a handful of minutes before keeping silent became impossible.

"I kind of wish you had. Been willing to talk to me, I mean." A somewhat impish grin came to his lips. "All you ever did was give me that shy little smile that made you look so damn cute. I wanted to get to know you. And then you stopped looking at me at all."

Jensen looked affronted at being called cute. "Hmph. And now? When we get out of this and rejoin the normal world, are you still going to want to talk to me?"

It was somewhat shocking to realize that Jared didn't even have to think about it. "Definitely."

And Jared desperately wanted to know what words were supposed to go with the face that Jensen was making, but a high-pitched beeping chose that precise moment to go off.

Jared jumped. "The hell?"

"I set the cruiser's proximity sensors to max," Jensen said, tapping a small circuit board on his belt. "And linked them up to this."

Jared felt a little bit numb. "So they're coming."

Jensen nodded. "They are."

Jared took a deep breath. "So, what are we going to do?"

"You are going to stay here and get this damn thing working," Jensen said, as if it was that easy. "I'll go check on our unwanted company."

"By yourself?" Jared blurted.

"I'm of the Ulfjhndir," Jensen said, in the same tone of voice that people used to say 'the suns will come up tomorrow'. "I can take care of myself. Make sure you do the same."

Jensen was gone before Jared could fumble his way through a response to that. He listened to the sound of Jensen's footsteps growing fainter until they faded completely.

The room seemed very empty all of a sudden.

Jared gave himself a brisk shake. "Come on, Jared," he told himself. "You've got a job to do."

The niggling worry about Jensen lurked in the back of his brain while Jared hurriedly went about fitting together the disparate parts of his cannibalized machine, but he tried not to let it distract him overmuch. Jensen still hadn't returned by the time Jared was ready to turn it on, but Jared thought he might have heard plasma shots fired somewhere downstairs.

They were running out of time. Even if he was of the Ulfjhndir, Jensen could hold them off indefinitely."

Heart in his throat, Jared connected the last cable and turned it on. The screens stayed blank.

"Come on, come on," Jared muttered, frantically scanning the monitors for a sign of life in the system. "Please, please, please..." 

Nothing happened. 

Jared stared. "No. God dammit!" He slammed an angry hand down on the console, and nearly had a heart attack when everything flared suddenly to life. 

"Fuck, I'll take it." Hurriedly dragging up a chair, Jared sent his fingers flying over the inputs, hailing the emergency frequency. 

"Message sent," he waited, breathless, for a response. 

"Is it working?" a voice asked, and Jared nearly jumped out of his own skin for the second time in as many minutes. 

"Jensen!" he gasped, spinning towards the door. "It's working, I think I- what the hell happened to you?"

"I ran into a flock of grumpy kriblins, what do you think?" Jensen shot back, still snarky despite being liberally stained with blood and gore. 

"Are you okay?"

"I'll live." Jensen cast an appraising eye at the communications console. "Looks like you figured it out then."

Jared couldn't help smiling at that. "I did."

Approval warmed Jensen's expression. "Knew you could," he said simply, and what the hell was wrong with Jared that that made his cheeks want to heat? "So are we good to go? Because I bought us some time by blowing up one of their transports, but we've got maybe five minutes before getting out of here is going to be practically impossible."

"I sent the distress signal out," Jared said, turning back towards the console to check the feed. "I'm just waiting for the pingback so I can give the… wait."

"Oh, that does _not_ sound good."

"This isn't right." Jared leaned over the console, panic coiling like ice in his gut. "The signal's… I sent it on the royal frequency, but it's not registering that anyone's received it."

"Maybe the GPC is too far away to receive it?"

Jared shook his head, frantically searching through the files to figure out what had gone wrong. "The GPC's supercomputers have the strongest and most diversely spread relay system in the galaxy. They can pick up practically anything. The only way they wouldn't is if…" he trailed off, realization striking him all at once. "Son of a _bitch_."

"The Ghash, they must have figured out the code for the royal frequency." Or tortured it out of his parents. His insides quailed at the thought. "I can't _believe_ I didn't think of that!" Jared's hands found his hair, twining and pulling to keep the rest of him from flying apart. "Such an _obvious_ -"

"Jared!" Jensen barked, cutting his panic off at the knees. "Can you get around it?"

"I-" Jared hunched his shoulders. "I, maybe? If I can reroute the signal, send it out on a different frequency and boost it, it might be enough to reach the GPC. But." He blinked at Jensen helplessly. "But we don't have time for that."

As if in response, there was a dull thud from somewhere far below, almost like a door rebounding against a wall, followed by a sound like thunder.

They were here.

Jensen swore. "We'll figure out another way," he promised, almost gently. "But right now, we've gotta go."

"What other way?" Jared demanded, and it was nearly a wail. "This was our best shot! And we'll never get back in now that they know it's here. We have to stop them!"

"You have to survive," Jensen corrected. He huffed out a tired breath. "The kingdom will have to… wait a little longer, that's all. Follow me."

Something settled like conviction in Jared's chest. "No. I'll stay."

Jensen stopped. "What."

"I'll stay." There was hysteria fighting its way up his throat, but Jared forced it down. Now wasn't the time. "This message has to get out. I know I can do it. You get out of here while you can."

"You're talking suicide!"

"It's not so bad," Jared said. He wasn't sure which of them he was trying to convince. "Dying to give everyone else a chance. That's what leaders are for, right?" 

Jensen said nothing. 

Jared pasted on an ill-fitting smile. "Will you speak well of me?" he asked, half-wistfully, then promptly yelped when Jensen started striding towards him with murder written all over his face.

"J-jensen," he stammered, not even realizing he was backing away from Jensen's approach until his back hit the edge of the console. "W-what are you-?"

Jensen stopped a mere hand's breath away, glaring up at Jared from the scant few inches afforded by the difference in their heights.

"You," he snarled, low and venomous. "Are the stupidest person I have ever met."

"Hey," Jared start to protest, only for it to turn into a shocked moan when Jensen seized his mouth in a brief, fiery kiss that set Jared's blood burning.

Jensen tore himself away before Jared had quite figured out what was going on, his eyes bright with anger and his cheeks flushed an attractive pink. "You get yourself killed and I will never forgive you, you hear me?" 

"I-" Jared's lips were tingling. "What?"

Jensen's expression was made of pure exasperation. "What part of that was unclear? Did I fucking stutter?"

"N-no, but. You just kissed me."

Jensen threw his hands up in the air. "Give the boy a prize!"

"No, I… why?"

"Unbelievable. You have no idea how people work, do you? Jared," he said then, and Jared started at the use of his actual name. "Listen to me carefully, because I'm only going to say this once. I'm in love with you, you utter imbecile, and I absolutely refuse to let you die on me. So you'd better get that damn signal boosted fast, or we're going to have words, you hear?"

"Yes," Jared said automatically in response to the edge of command in Jensen's voice. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I," Jensen said, over his shoulder as he strode away. "Am going to buy you some time. So get your ass moving!"

He was gone again before Jared could protest, like the self-sacrificing bastard that he was. 

Jared's lips were still tingling.

The sound of something exploding rattled through the foundations and Jared remembered himself in a hurry. Jensen was buying him time; Jared was going to use it.

Looking back later, Jared would find it impossible to believe that he'd managed to get it to work. He dove into the coding and wires with single-minded intensity, drawing on every scrap of knowledge from his training and research to patch, reroute and just fucking wing his way into a workaround for the comm system. 

He didn't know how long it took him; he was only aware of his own distant relief as the sound of plasma fire and explosions remained constant while he worked. 

When the signal connected, it was almost a surprise. Jared had forgone the text system in favour of the harder to block audio comms, and he nearly ended up on his face when the sudden voice in his ear startled him into nearly falling out of his chair.

He had a job to do first though.

"This is Jared Padalecki, authorization code T4629711-0, requesting immediate emergency aid to Tau IV. We have been invaded by the Ghash, I repeat, we have been invaded by the Ghash. We need a rescue."

The GPC agent confirmed that they'd dispatch a fleet immediately, and Jared felt his whole body sag with relief. He gave what few other details he could, then cut the connection, feeling flushed through with something that felt remarkably like hope.

Message delivered, Jared bolted up out of his chair and ran for the door. The sounds of combat were getting closer, and he needed to find Jensen now.

He careered around the corner towards the stairs, and nearly tripped over Jensen who'd barricaded himself at the top.

Jensen took one look at him and beamed a proud, blood-tinged smile. "I knew you could do it."

And Jared kind of wanted to cry, but that would have to wait. 

"I think it's your turn for a plan," he said, trying to keep the hysteria out of his voice. 

"Hmm. Lucky for you, I've already got one." A pause. "You're not going to like it."

"As long as it ends with us not dead or captured, I'm all for it!"

"I'm going to remind you of that." Jensen reached into a bag at his side and pulled out a bomb the size of his fist.

Jared stared at him. "Where did you get that?"

Jensen shrugged. "You're not the only one who can build stuff. The cruiser had most of what I needed, and I stole a couple of bits from your computer graveyard to finish it off. With the rest of the damage we've already done to the structural integrity to this place, this one should be enough to bring the whole building down on top of the Ghash's heads."

"With us in it?" Jared demanded, his voice embarrassingly high. 

Jensen's grin was fierce. "Depends on how you feel about jumping out of windows."

Jared's immediate "Are you _serious_?!" was drowned out by Jensen's exultant holler as he pitched the bomb over the railing, aiming for the furthest corner.

Jensen grabbed him by the back of his shirt, hauling him along like he was made of air. "Go, go, go, go!" he yelled.

Side by side, they barreled down the hall towards the wide windows of the observation deck. The explosion, when it came, was strong enough to make the entire building shake. Jared stumbled, and would have fallen if not for the iron grip of Jensen's fingers on his arm.

The floor shuddered again, and the air resounded with the ominous crack of crumbling cement.

"Wait until we're going down to jump!" Jensen ordered, even as he hauled Jared up onto the window ledge with him. 

"I hate you so much!" Jared shouted back at him, refusing to let go of Jensen's hand when he tried to extricate himself.

"Lies!" Jensen exclaimed, just as the entire room tilted to one side.

Jared's pulse was thundering, his palms sweaty and slippery. He watched Jensen as the building shuddered apart around them, confident that it was the safest option. He didn't see the ground coming closer, barely heard the Ghash soldiers yelling in the stairwell, struggled to keep his feet under him in the midst of chaos.

"Now!" Jensen shouted, and they jumped together, a yell exploding out of Jared's throat as he tumbled in free fall.

The ground, while not nearly as far away as Jared had been expecting, was still far enough distant for it to hurt like hell when he landed. One of his ankles twisted the wrong way, sending a sharp spike of pain up his leg that was only matched when he tumbled forward and smashed nose-first into the ground.

Jensen, the bastard, managed to tuck and roll even on an injured leg.

The thunderous noise of the building coming down continued for several endless seconds, and was followed by an impossibly loud silence.

They both lay there, panting.

"Fuck," Jared decided. "I thought sand was supposed to be softer."

Jensen groaned, wincing openly as he pulled himself upright. "Unfortunately, everything's hard if you hit it fast enough. Can you walk?"

Jared tested his ankle, and gasped when putting weight on it made his vision flare white. "Not so much," he gritted. 

Then Jensen was there, looping an arm around Jared's waist and hooking his shoulders under Jared's arm. "That was only one troop. We can't stay here."

"Won't they, hah, be able to f-find us anywhere?" Jared stammered, as they started struggling forwards. "Because of that DNA thing?"

"We just have to stay ahead of them," Jensen said, as if it was really that easy. "Just until the GPC arrives."

"I guess," Jared said, looking down at Jensen's upturned face, so close to his.

Which was about when he remembered Jensen's confession, and stiffened without meaning to.

Jensen looked at him evenly. "Are we going to talk about this?"

A fairly large part of Jared wanted to make a joke about the irony inherent in being asked that by Jensen, of all people, but he refrained. "None of this counts as a date," he said instead. "When this whole invasion thing is dealt with, you're taking me out on a proper date. With dinner. And no bodily injury."

Wow. Jared was going to have to make Jensen smile like that more often. Talk about gorgeous.

"Fair enough," was all Jensen said, because he was still kind of a jackass. And maybe that said some less than good things about Jared because, god help him, he found it unreasonably attractive. 

He knew it wasn't over. They'd have to go back into that god forsaken desert and dodge the Ghash until the GPC arrived, and then they'd have to see if the Ghash would stand down when faced with the might of the GPC or if they'd try to fight. Just the thought of what kind of damage that would do to his home made Jared feel ill.

"Hey," Jensen said at his side, and Jared glanced over to see him looking back, bloody and beautiful, wearing a shy little smile that looked so much like the first one Jared had ever got from him that it momentarily took his breath away. "Don't go borrowing trouble. We'll win this thing."

"Yeah," Jared agreed, and didn't even try to resist the urge to twine his fingers through Jensen's where they rested on his hip. Jensen clung back just as firmly. "I know."

Because how could they not?

~fin

**Author's Note:**

> Please do not post links to my work on Goodreads or any other third party website. Thank you.


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